Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This has impressive depth and poise with a composed, richly flavored palate that delivers all the red cherries, light spice and cascading tannins of quality pinot noir. Drink now.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby, the 2016 Pinot Noir has a classic nose of red and black cherries, cola, smoke, tea leaves and earth. Light to medium-bodied, it has good concentration of fruit, spice and earth in the mouth, softly textured with grainy tannins and finishing juicy.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.